Blood Thicker Than Water
by desolate butterfly
Summary: [KakaSasu] Sasuke is brought back to Konoha on a tight leash, and he doesn't particularly like who he is tied to.


Title: Blood Thicker Than Water  
Author: Desolate Butterfly  
Genre: Drama/Angst  
Rating: M for non-explicit mention of sex and implied unequal relationships  
Pairing: Kakashi/Sasuke  
Summary: Sasuke is brought back to Konoha on a very tight leash, and doesn't particularly like who he's tied to.

--

"You have fifteen minutes. Don't forget to cream rinse. Your hair's been looking kind of flat lately."

Sasuke grits his teeth and decides to let the slam of the bathroom door express what he is feeling at that particular moment. He hears something that sounded suspiciously like a snicker, and the thud of Kakashi leaning against the wall to wait for Sasuke to finish his ablutions. No doubt the latest copy of Icha Icha would be produced from wherever Kakashi seemed to be hiding them these days.

Sasuke very much wants to shred the pages of that familiar orange book and flush the pieces down the toilet. Especially since Kakashi has taken to reading the more salacious passages out loud while Sasuke is training or eating or examining the scrolls Sakura brings him in her spare time.

Kakashi claims it is because he wants Sasuke to receive a good sexual education. Sasuke thinks it's just because his perverted teacher likes watching him blush.

In any case, the jounin is certainly getting a lot of chances to "educate" Sasuke, considering that he is practically glued to Sasuke's hip these days. Ever since Sasuke had been dragged back to Konoha from Sound by an irate Team Seven, he had been put on a very tight leash to ensure that he wouldn't escape.

For the most part, Sasuke is grateful that he is allowed to roam the confines of the village freely, albeit, with a squad of ANBU dogging his footsteps and Kakashi at his side. But having to live in his former teacher's house, spending pretty much every waking moment with him, and even sleeping in a cot next to Kakashi's bed, so that he could hear every muffled groan and wheezy breath that the other man made while he slept, was getting on Sasuke's nerves.

The bathroom is pretty much the only place Sasuke can be by himself, and even those moments are brief.

Sasuke shrugs out of his clothes and steps into the full tub, sighing as the hot water envelopes his tired body. He would have preferred a shower but Kakashi's had been broken even since the day he moved in. Sasuke suspects that Kakashi broke it himself, in order to prevent Sasuke from masking any sounds of potential escape using the noise of the rushing water. Either that or Kakashi was the worst handy-man in Konoha and far too lazy to call someone to get his showerhead fixed. Both options seem plausible.

As Sasuke dutifully scrubs at his arms and chest he wonders if Kakashi is purposely trying to drive him crazy, as part of his punishment for leaving Konoha. It is inconceivable that the masked nin would be unaware of just how irritating it was to be woken by the sensation of someone tying bells to your ankles at five in the morning. The most irritating thing about it is that Sasuke never wakes up before the last knot is tied.

One night he tried to stay awake, just so he could catch Kakashi doing it, but he only ended up falling asleep with his eyelids propped open with his fingers in a position Kakashi later described as "freaky".

That's when Sasuke decided that Kakashi was probably drugging his food.

But it wasn't just the humiliation of being reminded each morning that he was still, in Kakashi's eyes anyway, a child, or the monotony of the genin-level missions he was forced to carry out while the rest of his former team passed him by, although these things grated badly.

What Sasuke hates most are those looks that Kakashi gives him every so often, like he is being measured and found wanting. The day that Sasuke had spat at Naruto's offer of ramen, for example, had left Kakashi with such a look of disappointed resignation on his face that Sasuke had wanted to find somewhere to curl up and lick his wounds in private.

He'd seen that look so many times: from his father, from Itachi. Seeing it in Kakashi's visible eye is somehow just as bad, even though Sasuke swears to himself that he doesn't need approval from anybody.

Living with Kakashi isn't all bad, though. At least the other man is discreet enough to know when to leave a subject alone, or to refrain from commenting on those rare nights when Sasuke wakes up breathless and sweat-soaked from dreams filled with coiling snakes and cold hands around his neck.

As for the other dreams…Sasuke pretends he isn't having those. Especially not when they seemed to feature a faceless man with a familiar, lanky frame and extremely talented hands.

Taking a deep breath, Sasuke slides beneath the surface of the water and lets the air in his lungs escape through his mouth in bubbles. The hot water stings his face, but the whoosh of the water in his ears is soothing, and Sasuke tosses his head a little, enjoying the way his hair brushes over his cheeks like seaweed.

Smiling slightly to himself, Sasuke opens his eyes to find a distorted version of Hatake Kakashi staring down at him curiously through the water. Sasuke opens his mouth to yell and chokes, exploding up out of the water in a much less graceful movement then he normally displays.

"What the hell are you doing!" Sasuke shrieks, after he is finished coughing soapy water and part of his lungs up. His hands immediately go to cover his lower half, but he needn't bother because his teacher is calmly checking out the back of his neck and the slightly reddened skin surrounding the seal.

"Just checking to see if you washed behind your ears," Kakashi drawls, pulling up the shower stool standing in the corner of the bathroom and dragging it over by the bathtub before taking a seat and pulling a copy of Icha Icha Orgy from his vest pocket and proceeding to flip through the much dog-eared pages.

"You know," he remarks absently, "there are much easier ways of killing yourself then drowning. I've got some pills..."

"What? I wasn't trying to---_Do you mind!_" Sasuke stutters, seeing that Kakashi is apparently planning to stay for the duration of his bath.

Kakashi glances up from his book and gives Sasuke a bored look.

"Not really," he says, and then cocks his head to the side and peers at the filmy suds which are currently hiding the area below Sasuke's waist with sudden interest. "Unless you were perhaps doing something rather naughty while trying to drown yourself…"

"I wasn't trying to drown myself," Sasuke argues, before the other half of Kakashi's sentence registers. When it does, Sasuke feels his cheeks redden and he ducks down even further in the soapy water.

"And I wasn't doing _that_ either!"

"Sure you weren't," Kakashi agrees easily, turning back to his book and nodding absently.

Sasuke quivers in indignation, not certain which is worse: being ignored when naked in a room with one's former teacher, or being scrutinized when naked in a room with one's former teacher. Seeing that Kakashi is not taking the hint and leaving, Sasuke decides to get the bath done as quickly as possible so that he can go to bed and never speak of this again. And put some damn clothes on.

The washcloth is rough against Sasuke's skin, and stained brown with old blood, and he wonders when the last time Kakashi bought himself bathroom supplies. Maybe he should mention it to Sakura. She'd been bugging him for ideas for a present to surprise Kakashi with on his birthday which would be coming up in a few weeks, and had already turned down his suggestion of getting him the latest Icha Icha series. Naruto, of course, had suggested ramen.

Sasuke notices that the rustling of pages has suddenly become silent and he wonders if Kakashi is watching him bathe. He decides not to look, but drops a hefty amount of body wash into the water to cloud it even further, just in case.

Not turning around turns out to be a mistake, however, because a few seconds later, Sasuke is surprised by the feel of Kakashi's fingers calmly rubbing shampoo into his hair.

"What the FUCK—" he yells, and jerks away, but only manages to make Kakashi tug painfully on his hair and splash soapy water onto the floor.

"Sit still," Kakashi advises. "You're never going to get clean that way."

"I DON'T need your HELP to wash my hair."

"Of course you don't." Kakashi's voice is soft and reproving and Sasuke hates it, hates the way it makes him feel guilty because he doesn't regret _anything_. _Especially_ not anything that helps him get a little bit closer to killing Itachi. "You don't need anyone, do you Sasuke-kun?"

"Don't call me that," Sasuke says, but he doesn't pull away again when Kakashi starts to work the lather through his hair, massaging away the itchy dust and dirt that had coated the dark strands during the day.

It feels good. Better than it should, in fact, and Sasuke is intensely aware of the fact that he is naked and it is his teacher running strong fingers through his bangs, scratching the crown of his head, keeping the suds from running into his eyes with one careful hand on his forehead.

"Rinse," Kakashi whispers, and it shouldn't be so easy to fall back into the water, to trust that Kakashi will keep supporting his neck and not let him go completely under. Sasuke closes his eyes and sighs as Kakashi cups warm water in the hand not holding Sasuke's head and pours it down over Sasuke's sideburns, tickling his cheeks.

When Kakashi lifts Sasuke's head up, his body follows obediently, made pliant by the warm water and the soothing brush of Kakashi's hands. He waits quietly while Kakashi pours some conditioner into his palm (strawberry scented, and Sasuke wonders if he should be offended that he is apparently using Pakkun's conditioner on Sasuke's hair) and starts to comb the creamy substance through Sasuke hair, untangling the knots at the base of his neck as he goes.

Sasuke is not so quiet, however, when Kakashi pauses in his ministrations to swipe a slippery finger over the raised and reddened sworls of the curse seal. A sensation like liquid fire races through Sasuke's blood straight to his groin and he hisses unintentionally.

Kakashi stills, his finger pressed to the outer ridges of the mark, and Sasuke feels it like a pulse in his throat, in his head, in his dick. He quickly represses a shudder.

"Does it hurt?" Kakashi inquires, sounding mildly curious.

Sasuke grits his teeth and squeezes his thighs together. He is dismayed to find that this does not, in fact, help control his embarrassing erection _at all_ and hopes that the water has been suitably clouded by all the soap and shampoo suds in it to hide his little problem.

"Y-yeah," he stutters. "It hurts. Don't touch it."

"Hm…" Kakashi muses, ignoring Sasuke's request and casually circling his finger around the curse seal. Sasuke makes a choked noise and almost rises out of the water to make Kakashi stop before remembering that doing so would show Kakashi exactly what effect his touch is having on his treacherous body.

"You know," Kakashi says, "Naruto once told me that having _his_ seal caressed felt like someone sucking on his cock."

Sasuke's eyes widen and he whips his head around to stare at Kakashi.

"When would _he_ have a chance of finding out something like _that?_" he demands.

Kakashi's visible eye squints suspiciously, and if Sasuke didn't know better he would think the man was laughing at him.

"Well," he drawls, "it seems that Naruto isn't always willing to wait outside while Jiraiya goes 'information gathering' in the brothels. Apparently, Naruto's quite popular in the villages west of Konoha. Has a reputation for uh…_enthusiasm_."

"That idiot," Sasuke seethes, clenching his fists. "Doesn't he know he can get diseases or something?"

"Oh I'm sure Jiraiya's taught him to be careful. And you're missing the point, Sasuke-kun." Kakashi taps his fingers on the back of Sasuke's neck and Sasuke has to muffle his gasp with a cough. Kakashi doesn't look like he's fooled by it, though.

"Are you telling me that this," a rake of nails leaves sparks of colours erupting behind Sasuke's closed eyes and he arches into the touch, "doesn't make you feel good?"

Sasuke takes a deep breath and pulls his knees up to his chest in a protective gesture. It isn't fair. Kakashi shouldn't be able to do this to him. No one should be able to do this to him. He should be untouchable.

"I'm not Naruto," Sasuke manages finally, his voice quiet but firm.

Kakashi waits a long time before removing his hands, rinsing them in the water behind Sasuke's curved back and wiping them dry on his pants.

"No," he says, rising from his seat, "you're not."

"Kakashi…"

"Five minutes, Sasuke. I'll be timing you from the bedroom."

When Kakashi shuts the door behind him, Sasuke sinks into the water again and takes a hold of his penis. When he comes he cries out under the water so no one will hear him.

As he rinses the stinging soap from his eyes, Sasuke wonders if it's possible for him to be lonely when he is always and forever surrounded.

Fin.

--

_Any commentary is appreciated._


End file.
